


Ain't What It Used to Be

by Meddalarksen



Series: 30 AU Challenge - Natasha [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, Maybe Pre-slash? It's not obvious but they wouldn't tell me if it was pre or current
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 15:57:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11924265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meddalarksen/pseuds/Meddalarksen
Summary: A quiet walk after a shootout in a vaguely futuristic setting.  What more could two women ask for?





	Ain't What It Used to Be

Pressing her back against the wall and listening carefully to the blasts from the laser guns, trying to pinpoint where they were coming from, Maria looked across the alley to where Natasha was crouched behind a stack of shipping crates.  Natasha had that look in her eyes that said she nearly had the angles figured out and sure enough, she rose smoothly, firing three shots from her own blaster before reaching over, grabbing Maria by the wrist and running down the alley away from their attackers. 

Placing a hand on a keypad of a door in the wall, Natasha typed in the code quickly and they were both through, doused in the neon of the main streets.

Both of them slid their guns into the back of their belts, concealed under their coats as they wove through the crowds.  They traveled a few blocks like this before Natasha paused and systematically undid the top three inches of the zipper on her shirt, reaching up to muss up her perfectly controlled hair and pull up the hood of her coat. 

Maria raised an eyebrow before Natasha smiled, looking abruptly like a student rather than the agent who had been pinned down by enemy fire a handful of minutes before.

“Your turn.”

Maria shook her head, but reached up to pull her dark hair out of the ponytail she was keeping it in, unzipping the lower part of her coat to wrap inside out around her waist, setting the center zipper against her hip and fastening it up so the green lining shimmered and caught the light against the black pants and top she wore. 

When she’d done that, Natasha curled an arm through Maria’s with another smile, resting her head against Maria’s arm, changing them even further from co-agents to two women on a date, “Where are we going?”

Maria glanced at her partner, haloed by the flashing lights over under and around them on the walkway they moved along, “I was going to get dinner. You get to choose what you want to do at that point.”

Natasha hummed, “I think my programming would permit that.”  Her lips curved upward and Maria chuckled.

It was a joke they had taken to throwing between themselves based on things they had both heard said by idiots in the agency about how Natasha moved so quickly from one aspect to another that she had to be one of those androids rather than flesh and blood.  Maria may or may not have gotten written up for breaking a couple of noses about that, besides even if Natasha _was_ , what did it matter?

Natasha simply looked at them until they backed down, and then over the next few weeks there would be mass communiques and postings on the boards around the agency detailing the latest breakthroughs in android versus cybernetic technologies.  Maria had a few of the more passive aggressive ones of those saved to her personal discs so she could frame them whenever she wanted.

“Would your programming prefer grease or something light?” Maria asked as they strolled along the street, stepping around vendors and idiots on hoverbikes who couldn’t figure out that the traffic lanes were _over there_.

“Light.  None of that fake fish shit they serve here though.”

“Only the best for my girl,” Maria agreed, not quite sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

Natasha tipped her head back enough to offer Maria a grin, “Then how about that place up by the Red Sun. Since you want to make sure you treat me well.”

“Is it our anniversary already?” Maria asked wryly.

“Last week.  You missed it,” Natasha said with that particular carelessness that even after years Maria couldn’t always tell if she was being serious or not.

“The place by the Red Sun it is then,” Maria said with a smile and Natasha laughed as she flagged down a cab to take them up to the right level.


End file.
